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Understand the task to be solved

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Jim explains that it is important to understand the requirements of each particular submittal and review process when planning your workflow in order to properly configure the permissions and abilities within the cloud storage and group collaboration features contained in Bluebeam, called Studio Projects and Studio Sessions.

- [Voiceover] Now more than ever, the construction processreally involves the submittal, review, markup, and approvalof documents throughout the entire project life cycle.Now because of the built in cloud storageand collaboration features that are includedin Bluebeam Revu, we can really use the softwareto help us manage the entire process as long aswe have a good understanding of each process's workflowand how we can optimize that workflow.So the first step is to really understandthe task at hand for each submittal process.

We need to know and understand who needs to be involvedand we need to make sure that we set up a processthat facilitates all of our requirements.So with that in mind, let's look at the examplethat I'm gonna run through in this course.In this course, I'm gonna look at the exampleof submitting, reviewing and approving safety data sheetsfor products to be used on my construction project.Now, I understand that in some cases,this is a simple procedure that mightget very little attention or review,and sometimes this process is little morethan collecting these product sheets into one locationfor access at the work site, but in this example,I'm gonna actually draw from a projectthat I'm currently consulting on,that requires extensive review of these product sheetsby multiple parties before they receive final approval.

So, the nice thing here is that as long as you understandthe process and the requirements, you can takethis solution that we'll run through in this courseand you can scale it up or down to meet your needs.So on this project, the work's being doneinside of an existing government facility,and they're very picky about reviewing all of the products,so these safety data sheets that you see herehave to actually go to not onlythe project management team for the owner,but they have to go to the facility managerand those two parties have to approve these beforewe can even bring any of these products on the project site,and that's not uncommon on an existing facility.

So because of these multiple reviews,we'll set up a workflow that facilitates this process,but again, remember, you can scale this up or downand as we go through this course, you'll see that evenif all I need to do is collect these and bind them togetheror make them accessible, this solution will work for thatand it'll give you a good electronic solutionas opposed to a hard copy solution.So let's look at a couple more considerations hereand then we'll discuss our parameters.Now one of the main considerations hereis that these safety data sheets have to bereadily accessible at everyone working on the project,so in the United States, this is a federal regulation.

It's enforced by OSHA,and many other countries have similar rules,so you probably know that most contractors complywith these rules by requiring all their subcontractorsto submit hard copies of these sheets,which they then put in a binder and they keepin a job site office or construction trailer,but these documents are sometimes 10, 15 pages long,and there might be hundreds of them on a project,so it's not uncommon on a large project to end upwith multiple three inch binders full of this stuff,and then I've seen at the end of the job,where you have data retention requirements,I've watched people take these hard copiesand actually scan them in to create their archives.

So wouldn't it be better to juststart out with the electronic documentsand stay with that for the entire project?You know, do we really need these paper copies?Or is this one of those processes thatreally lends itself to electronic documents?So I'll tell you from a regulatory standpoint,most agencies will state that electronic accessis perfectly acceptable as long asthe electronic documents are readily availableand accessible to anybody that requests them,so we're gonna keep that in mind as one of our parameters.So with that, let's kinda talkabout the rest of the parameters.

The first thing is when I am done reviewingall of my individual safety data sheet submittals,I want to be able to combine them togetherinto a single PDF file with a linked table of contents.Now, if I do this correctly, my table of contentswill actually become my chemical list,and if you're familiar with safety requirementsor particularly OSHA regulations on a project,you'll understand what that means to you,that chemical list means, but I want a single PDF filethat is searchable and has a linked table of contentsthat anybody can use.

I need that PDF file to be universal and accessible,and what I mean by that is I can't assumethat everybody that's gonna viewthese safety data sheets is using Bluebeam Revu.They might be using a multitudeof other PDF software viewersand I need to create a document that's universaland can be read by anything, and that's importantbecause that does sort of dictate part of my solution.I'm not gonna be able to create things,if you're familiar with PDF packages, in Bluebeam Revu,I'm not gonna be able to do that becausethose aren't necessarily viewable by other PDF readers.

So I also wanna recognizethe limitations of my project partners.I have a large project, and it's notjust me and my internal project team.I have lots of subcontractors and trade contractors,some big, some small, and I need to keep this fairly simple.I need to keep the process easy to understandand I don't want them to have to gothrough a big learning curve in order to participatein the process because otherwise, they just won't do it,and I really want all of my team participatingin this process, not just part of my team,and again, in that same theme, this needs to be simple.

It needs to be easy, and by limited barriers,what I'm gonna show you here, is a solutionthat involves the Bluebeam Studio Sessions product,and the reason that I'm using Studio Sessionsis because when I put a document in there,my project partners that don't want to purchasea copy of Bluebeam Revu can actually just usethe free version of the software called Bluebeam Vu,and they can participate fully in this processas long as the document and the processis handled in a Bluebeam Studio Session,so, you know, that's one of the thingswe're gonna do to limit barriers.

And then finally, I wanna make surethat I have the ability to add more submittals later.So, again, I've been in construction for a long time.I understand that, you know, in an ideal world,we would start the project, we would have all ofour subcontractors and trade contractors under contract,we would ask them to all send everything inat the beginning of the project and we would do one review.Now, I'd probably say that foras long as I've been in construction,I have never seen that actually happen on a project, right?This submittal process, particularlythe safety data sheets submittal process,this is gonna go on for the entire project,and I'm gonna need a way to continueto add safety data sheets to that electronic document,cause remember, I'm not gonna do the paper binders anymore.

So I need a way to continue to add additionalsafety data sheets to that electronic file,and I wanna be able to update thatPDF linked table of contents at the same time,so keep those things in mind because again,that's gonna dictate how we formulate the solution.So with all of these end goals in mind,let's go ahead and continue on to the next chapterand look at how to start our process.

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Released

7/15/2016

Virtually every construction project these days involves documentation. Collecting, routing, reviewing, approving, copying, and distributing paper documents the old-fashioned way is tedious, and it's easy to "drop the ball," especially with regulatory documentation such as Safety Data Sheets (SDSs). Using Bluebeam Revu, we can transform safety submittals into a simple paperless process.

The end result is an easily accessible electronic package, with a hyperlinked chemical list that acts as a clickable table of contents—all with considerably less effort. Jim Rogers shows how to set up a project, start a studio session for collaboration, invite collaborators to the review process, set up an approval workflow, and combine all the submitted sheets into a single PDF file that can be searched and shared. Plus, learn how to keep a session open for additional submittals or archive it when a project is over.